


dancing on my veins

by msginguin



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: F/F, Random Conversations, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27262630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msginguin/pseuds/msginguin
Summary: Do you ever take a look at your wrist and start to wonder?How can you feel the fluttering beating of your veins on top of your fingertips as the dancing feeling lingering on your skin? How do each beat become the reminder of how you are still alive and well and breathing goodness in and out, just trying to survive from the harshness of this world? How the warm thumping felt like a sugary happiness that you can never stop addicted to?Because that is how Irene feels whenever she is with Wendy, the stranger whom she always meets at the underground station after she went to work. Being the calming ending to the turbulent havoc of how her day goes.
Relationships: Bae Joohyun | Irene/Son Seungwan | Wendy
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. The first encounter

Have you ever wondered why time always moves at an unpredictable pace? How will the pace change depending on what we were doing that day? With whom we were spending time with? How things escalated as you were just trying to enjoy your day?

Scratch that. It’s much more like trying to survive everyday since that is how Irene felt recently by all the things that have happened in these past few weeks.

With a tired expression, she let the escalator bring her down to the underground part of the station. Standing on the left side as a bunch of people with their rushed pace trying to reach the underground faster than her is moving on the right side.

Irene always snorted at the notion of rushing going home. Why would you rush to reach the place where you can relax for the rest of the night, when you can take a much slower pace and start to appreciate things that are moving around you?

With the tired security that was scattered around the station, eyes barely opened as the feeling of sleepiness started to kick in before their shifts ended, trying to keep the whole platform safe from thieves and thugs. Sometimes their faces contorted into annoyance because of some people who never came to the station and started to ask the whereabout of the precious cubicle of toilet is.

How the night entertainment like street musicians filling the noisy rush of a station with beautiful melodies of a song. Sometimes with their voices. Sometimes with a beautiful plucking of guitar strings. Sometimes with the beautiful melodies that come out from the friction of the stringed instrument. Sometimes with a beautiful blow of breath that could turn into different notes as they push certain buttons to change the voice.

And how in the end, people will just throw them a piece of their appreciation in the form of paper that has numbers in it. Somehow in the end, always being the most valuable thing one could ever get.

Irene let out a small huff as her feet stepped down from the escalator. Her eyes wander around the platform, trying to spot an empty bench for her to sit and rest her legs for some time before her train comes to pick her up.

When the brown orbs finally found one, the rectangular object inside her purse started to ring it's annoying voice, making her cursed inwardly before picking it up and putting it on her ear. “Hello?”

“Hi, Irene. Sorry to bother you now but I want to ask about the project with the food company in downtown?”

Irene let out a sigh as her mind picked up a certain small food company that just started their business several months ago, and asked for help towards their agency to help them promote their products. “Yeah, what about it?”

Her co-worker started to explain about the problem they stumbled upon as her sore legs dragged herself to reach the beautiful empty spot of the bench. With every step that she took, she felt the headache on her brain start to form as the annoying words keep spilling out from the mouth of her co-worker.

She let out a relieved sigh as she finally sat herself on top of the hard bench, handphone still pressing on her ear. “Didn’t the creative team already receive the summary of our meeting two days ago?”

“Yeah, but some things came up in the middle and they kind of asked us to reorganize it so they could design the promotional stuff better.”

Irene closed her eyes in frustration as her hand mindlessly reached for her calf, massaging it softly. She felt another person sitting beside her at the bench as she replied to her co-worker. “Fine. Is someone already arrange a new meeting to discuss this stuff?”

“It’s going to be on Thursday. I will send you more stuff for you to know about the problems more.”

She let out a hum as she bid her co-worker a small thanks and goodbye before closing off the call. A frustrated sigh slipped out from her mouth as her fingers kept doing a massaging motion to soothe the tense muscle of her calf. A result of her wearing heels for the whole day because she didn’t bring a pair of comfortable sneakers for her to change to.

“Bad day at work?”

Irene looked to her right, trying to check whether the woman beside her was asking the question to her or another person. Once she didn’t find any evidence of her holding a phone right beside her ear and there isn’t another person sitting beside her, she answered her question. “Can say like that.”

The woman hummed softly as her head bobbed slightly, the motion of understanding what she just experienced earlier. “Want to lash it all out?”

The long-haired woman raised her eyebrow as she leaned her back to the bench, having her full attention on the woman beside her because of the offering earlier. An offering that she wants to know more about the reason why the stranger beside her suddenly asked her that question.

The stranger just shrugged like the thing she offered wasn’t a pretty big deal. “I mean, some people tend to choose to lash out their emotion so the heaviness they feel inside themselves will lessen. And I think you might need to lash out several things just to let go some stresses under your nerves. If you want to, I can be the person who listens to your rants.”

“Why?”

A frown bloomed on the soft feature of the woman’s forehead. “What do you mean why?”

“I mean, why did you offer things to the person you just met a minute ago?”

“First of all, we didn’t know each other. So I can’t stab you in the back if I’m going to use your rant for my advantage. Second,” the woman shrugged before continuing, “I’m bored. And my train will not arrive here any sooner. Instead of dying from boredom, why don’t I just listen to someone’s rant?”

Irene hummed softly, now understanding the reasoning of why she offered that service earlier.

“It’s a win-win situation after all,” closed the woman as she gave the courtesy of the ball to her. The next move now depended on her decision whether to lash out her problems to the stranger or not.

Her brown eyes looked to the empty railway, contemplating about the offer inside her mind as she pushed back the chaos coming from her workplace for a while. She let out a sigh. Well, she’s also bored in this station. Why not make it fun by lashing out some of her building frustration? “Okay, I guess I will lash out.”

The woman flashed her a wide grin. “I’m ready to listen anytime.”

A soft chuckle slipped out from her lips before she let out her rants. “So, my superior, who has always been the shittiest person alive, suddenly upgraded into a more fucked up version of himself. I mean, he demanded something that is completely near too impossible to be done!”

The short-haired woman hummed. “What kind of things did he demand?”

Her brows furrowed in irritation as she continued to tell the story of her day. “He demanded that we are done researching what potential platform for our client to use as a purpose of promotion to expand their reach to the people tomorrow. When we were just given the summary and the things we need to learn about that company just three days ago!”

“Well, now that you are saying it, it is indeed impossible,” muttered the woman beside her softly. “What a crazy bastard he is.”

“I know,” sighed Irene in resignation. “And the problem just keeps piling up by how there is a new problem with the creative team when I receive the phone call earlier.”

“What kind of problem?”

“My team and the others have made this summary of what the creative team needs to do for the rest of the promotional stuff like designing contents for our clients to use. But somehow, in the middle of the road, the creative team stumbled upon something that made them can’t continue what they were doing right now. That’s why we will redo the talks and the summary to help them.”

The stranger winces from hearing her rants. “Oh God, that is the worst thing to do when you were working. Redoing everything.”

Irene just let out her snort out of the frustration that started to calm down inside of her after a few lashing out. “It’s just another pile of work after a pile of work that is still waiting to be done and somehow will just never be reduced by themselves. It keeps adding up and it's just frustrating the heck out of me because I can never see the surface of my desk anymore by how many files I have on top of it now!”

“Busy season, huh?”

“Can say like that.”

The stranger hummed again. Her hand rummaging something inside of her bag, picking out a bottle of mineral water and offering it to her. “Do you want some? I thought you might need some liquid help to wash down all the anger and stress.”

The corner of her lips quirked upwards as she took the offered bottle. “Thank you,” muttered her softly.

The woman flashed her a wide grin as she waited for her to finish drinking from her bottle patiently. “Feel much better?”

Irene blinked, twisting close the cap of the bottle as realization started to dawn in her mind. “Yes, actually. Thank you again for hearing my rants.”

“It’s not much,” chuckled the woman softly as she accepted her bottle of water back from her. “I mean, it’s just to kill some of my time, you know? Sometimes this station can be so boring for your own good. There is literally nothing to enjoy beside the sound of rushing steps of people fighting to get inside the train.”

“And the announcer’s voice announcing which train has just arrived on this platform.”

The woman let out a snort. “Yeah, that too.”

Somehow the universe suddenly designed to align in a perfect time. A familiar bell sound of a train announcement started to be played at the platform, announcing the arrival of the train that Irene needed to use to go back.

Irene sighed. Just in time when she started to grow comfortable with the stranger beside her.

“Well, I think that’s our cue to go our separate ways now,” said Irene with a little bit of disappointment as she stood up from the bench, getting ready to step inside the train.

“Of course,” nodded the woman.

Irene looked at her with a small smile plastered on her face. “Thank you again for the help earlier, um-“

“Wendy,” announced the woman whose name was Wendy. “My name is Wendy.”

The small smile on her face grew wider. “Well, Wendy. I’m Irene and it’s really nice to meet you tonight here. Especially after hearing my rants out.”

Wendy waved her hand in a dismissing motion. “It’s nothing much. I’m glad I could help.”

Irene nodded as the train finally stopped. Opening its door to let the passengers get off from the train and letting the new one get on the car. “I need to go now.”

The short-haired woman nodded as she flashed her a wide smile again. The smile that could light up the whole world when it turned dark. “Be careful on your way back, Irene.”

“I guess, see you again sometimes?”

“See you again soon.”


	2. the second meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> because finding something constant in your life is also meaningful too

Do you have something constant in your life? Something that keeps showing up, always near you no matter what happens, without any reasoning to be there at all?

Sometimes Irene wonders what is the thing that will become a constant thing for her. A thing that will always be there for her. Never betrays her or turns their back on her. And always guiding her to be the best version of herself.

Like how the arrow of the clock constantly points at the numbers to tell us what is the exact time currently. Like how the envelope always has stamps sticking at the top corner of it, never be separated with one another.

Yeah, Irene is a sucker for things like that sadly. A result of watching too many romantic movies, she is now wanting something who will be the stamp to her envelope.

Ironically, the only constant thing that always accompanies her day by day is how there is always rushing people around her inside the station. Well, first of all, it’s not even a weird thing to be thinking about in the first place.

It’s a station, after all. A public space. The place where people try to reach some place as fast as they could with the help of a train. Paying of what seems like a quite minimum amount of fare everyday to be going from this point to another point.

Irene crouches down as she takes the cool bottle of tea from the vending machine she visited before going down to the underground platform with an escalator. Her eyes observing as the cold tip of the bottle kissed her lips softly. The clear brown liquid cascading down her throat as people took their turns to ride the escalator.

Somehow the station wasn’t as full as usual tonight. Even though it’s still filled with overworking people who just want to lay their body on top of the hard bed in their place, it’s not as crowded. Considering the number that the arrow of her wristwatch pointed at, it quite makes sense that the amount of people has descended down a bit.

Her slightly worn-out sneakers placed themselves on top of the elevator step comfortably. Letting the machine bring her down as the view of the familiar platform started to show from the tunnel where people went by, including her.

Her brown eyes immediately search for an empty spot for her to sit. With the ability of an eagle preying on its food, her gaze spotted an empty bench in the platform. The same bench she sat on two days ago.

Suddenly, her mind decided to recall her random encounter with a random stranger that night. The stranger who was under the name Wendy, like that famous fast food chain. Listening to her rambling about how stressing her work is. Letting her release a quite good amount of building nerves on her veins.

Irene let out a soft sigh as she finally sat herself up comfortably on top of the bench, leaning her back to the cool wooden plate. Watching the train in front of her prepared to leave the station to go to another one. Transporting tired and stressed out passengers like her to the place where they want to be the most.

She was about to drink another gulp of refreshing tea when a familiar voice interrupted her.

“Good day at work today?”

Irene chuckles as her head tilted to the right, looking at the familiar figure of Wendy comfortably sitting herself beside her. At the same exact spot where she sat two days ago. “If you called overtime working as a good day at work, then yeah, it is.”

Wendy snickered after hearing her sarcasm. “That is the most optimistic thing one could expect coming out from your mouth.”

A loud laugh slipped out from her mouth because of that reply. “What about you? Also a good overtime working today?”

“If you call an outing with co-workers as good overtime working, then yeah, it is.”

Irene just snorted from her reply. The familiar cold feelings from the tip of the bottle touched her lips again as she drank a good amount of tea. Wanting to clench her thirst into something more refreshing for tonight.

“I see you brought a pair of sneakers today.”

“Yeah. It sucks to always wear heels all the time, you know? Feels like another good amount of torture when working is already torturing enough.”

She can hear her soft chuckle as her reaction, alongside a soft smile plastered on her lips. “You don’t like your job?”

Irene shook her head as she put her cold bottle of tea right beside her. “It’s not like that. I like my job. I really enjoy it,” she let out a sigh before continuing her words with a tired voice of hers. “But sometimes, things just become too much and it’s annoying because in the end, it’s just you who need to clear all the mess. It’s your responsibility after all.”

Wendy hummed softly as her head slightly bobbing, understanding what she just said earlier. “What kind of job did you do, by the way? If you didn’t mind.”

“Not at all,” said Irene with a reassuring smile. “I’m working at this advertising agency. It’s not really that big yet, but it’s not small either. So you can say the agency it’s in the middle of everything. And I worked there as the strategic planner.”

“Strategic planner? What did you do as a strategic planner?”

“Technically trying to know the potential and the weak spot of our client, so we could be all out in terms of promoting after we already know certain things to help pick them up with our ads.”

“Ah, so you are an analyst.”

Irene frowned at that word. Analyst, it sounded so foreign in her ears. “No. Analyst is just analysing stuff. While I’m making a plan on how the potential way to reach the market and things like that too.”

Wendy nodded at the explanation, finally understanding the terms of a strategic planner. She let out a soft chuckle as her mind decided to remind her with Irene’s offended expression when she said that she was an analyst.

“What about you?”

The woman beside her raised her eyebrow. “Me?”

Irene nodded. “Yeah. What did you do for a living?”

The brunette let out a soft hum as her face went into its scrunching state. Seemingly like thinking about how to explain to her about her job. “It’s quite complicated to be put in one word. But safe to say, I’m an engineer.”

Her eyebrow raised in surprise. No offense but, she didn’t see any vibes of engineering radiating from this ball of sunshine that is currently seating beside her on the bench. “An engineer?”

Wendy nodded in excitement. “Yup. Since I made stuff.”

“Made stuff doesn’t mean you are an engineer.”

“One can dream to be an engineer.”

A small chuckle slipped out from her mouth. Wendy and the way her mind always fascinates her when they just met each other several times now. “Okay. What did you make?”

“Things that can be repaired.”

Another frown bloomed on the soft features of her forehead. “Isn’t that what a repairman does?”

“Repairman only fixes stuff. They didn’t make anything. While engineers, they can make stuff and repair stuff since they know what they are going to do with it.”

Irene was stunned from her explanation. Well, it’s not wrong, but it’s not partially right either. “Okay. I guess it will be just easy for me to accept the notion of you being an engineer without any explanation behind it.”

Wendy just laughed at her reaction. Didn’t give her a second mind of her reaction. Just shrugging it off like it was nothing. “It’s a good day today, by the way. Don’t you think so?”

“From what point?”

“If you realize it, since the start of the day, there is no abnormality happening on this day. Well, in my circumstances of course,” explained Wendy as her eyes fixed on the now empty railway, waiting for another train to come. “Like, the sky is clear blue. It’s not that windy, it’s not that hot either. There wasn’t any rain falling. The night was also alright. I saw the night sky earlier and it filled with tons of stars above, like a dark ocean with some glitters in it.”

Her mind decided to recall what she was doing all day today. Yeah, nothing weird or something stressful enough to happen inside her office, except for her overworking stuff which she can handle pretty fine. Her co-workers are fine. Her boss is nowhere to be seen, which is a good thing since Irene is sick of him. “Yeah, it’s a pretty good day today. Nothing that can make me pretty irked off happened today.”

She can hear Wendy smile from her reply. “I guess the universe decided to have it easy on us today.”

A chuckle slipped off from her throat. “Thank you, universe, for your kindness by sparing us to not give some stressful things to handle.”

The short-haired woman also let out a soft chuckle before she asked her another question. “Which makes me kind of wonder about something. Do you know why the sky is blue?”

“I don’t know. Is it because the sea is blue?”

Wendy hummed from her answer. “But there wasn’t any sea around here.”

“Yeah, but the sky is wide enough to still be able to be coloured as blue because of the reflection from the sea, don’t you think? And also, the ocean is vast.”

“Oh, I like your logic. For me, it’s because the universe actually coloured in dark blue. A really dark blue that is close to being a whole black, but no, they are still blue.”

“And why is that?”

“I mean, if you see it from this way,” Wendy changes her position, turning her body to the side so she could look at her clearly while explaining her point. Feeling energized to share a piece of what she was thinking. “The sky turns into blue, a clear blue when they are lightened up by the Sun. Am I right?”

Irene just nodded from that question.

“And if you see the dark sky very clearly when it’s night, it’s not pure black. It’s dark blue. Do you know why?”

Irene shook her head this time. Didn’t know the exact answer from it.

“It’s because the stars that scattered on the sky,” answered Wendy with mirth dancing in her eyes. “Tons of stars always filled the night sky. Sometimes they were accompanied with the bright moon, sometimes they are not. Because of the flickering light that was caused by the stars, the skies colour became a dark blue at night.”

Her eyebrow raised slightly, still didn’t understand what Wendy pointed out in her explanation. “So?”

“So, that means, light is the one who is pretty responsible enough to change the skies colour from clear blue to dark blue.”

A frown replaced her raised eyebrow this time. “But that doesn’t explain why the sky is blue?”

Wendy was about to explain to her once again, when a realization dawned on her mind. “Oh, right. You are right. That doesn’t explain why the sky is blue.”

“So it’s still unanswered for now?”

The woman beside her nodded. “Yup, it’s still unanswered for now.”

The familiar ringing of the bell suddenly played on the station as the announcer announced which train would be arriving on the platform in seconds.

Wendy immediately stood up from her position. “Well, I guess we need to finish our conversation now.”

Irene frowned as she realized which line Wendy will use to go back to her place. “Your place is quite far from here.”

“It’s not that far,” dismissed Wendy with a light tone. “Yes, I need to wake up pretty early in the morning, but it’s all worth it.”

A small smile bloomed on Irene’s lips. “I’m glad you are enjoying this.”

Wendy flashed her wide grin to her. “We need to try to enjoy our life, Irene. No matter how stressful it is. Because in the end, sometimes along the way, you will appreciate small things that happened to you if you are starting to enjoy your life. Both good and bad.”

Irene’s smile grew bigger because of her words. Wendy and her ability to always stun her mind with how she perceived things within her own eyes. “See you soon?”

“See you soon, Irene,” said Wendy as she gave her last smile of the night to her, before entering the train that will bring her to the safe box of her privacy.


	3. the third talk

Chaos.

Sometimes that is the only word that Irene can say about the world that is currently revolving around her. People in the station moving like they were getting chased by a horrible being, even though it’s only their effort to get to the platform faster so they could catch the earliest train.

People trying to serve food as quickly as possible to the other people whose stomach is currently roaring in hunger, before spilling everything and getting a heart wrenching scold by their boss who only cares about profit and not their workers.

People who are walking on the streets, being chased by the time trying to reach the place they intend to come. Don't waste any second if they can make more money in the process of wasting time.

Or the people who are on the streets, protesting about the governments who claimed themselves as the people’s representatives, when what they are doing and what they have been done is far from it. They are just making the people need to survive in this cruel and unfair world much harder than it already is. While they are enjoying the privilege that they get from getting a big salary and can do everything they want with the laws that are ruling the country.

And that’s what Irene thinks when she decided to grab a newspaper at one of the shops in the station, so she could read it while she was waiting for her train. Reading the headlines of it, being the first thing that greeted her when she opened the newspaper.

How there is a big scale protest happening in the whole nation of a country because of the law that they just passed as an official law. Making the people actually being at the disadvantage of this law, by their rights are being stripped off by their own country. Letting all the investors from another country can invest in their nation easily without the need to have a concern for their local workers.

A frown showed up on Irene’s soft features of her forehead. This is disgusting, and horrible. She actually has learned about this issue from the co-workers of the place where she works at currently talking about this thing, giving their insights about this problem that’s currently gaining international attention.

Irene sipped her warm milk tea, before focusing her gaze back on the article at the newspaper. Decided to keep up with the rest of the things that are currently happening around the world right now.

Actually, she always didn’t care about this kind of stuff. Not that kind of not care. It’s just, sometimes she doesn’t see why she needs to keep up with the things that are revolving around her world. She cares? Yes, but in her own ways. Her work has already caught her attention by making her pretty busy just to handle them, and she needs to know about the things that are happening around her?

No, rest sounds better than that.

But somehow, a show up of certain someone in her life suddenly changed her perspective of the surroundings around. Making her put more attention than she already is into the little things that are happening around her, including things that are happening inside the station.

Now she knows that there is a new stall that sells spicy rice cakes in the station. The street singers that always entertain the tired workers like her when they were about to top-up their tickets or just resting for a while before waiting at the platform, are nowhere to be seen now. Being replaced by this amateur saxophone player that is always playing jazz music. Maybe Louis Armstrong’s, she wasn’t updated that much in the world of jazz.

“I didn’t know you read the newspaper.”

Irene just shrugged, moving away the cup of her warm milk tea that she bought from the minimarket inside the station to the other side so she could give a spacious space for Wendy to sit. “Buy it just to avoid making the wait for my train boring.”

Wendy let out a hum, acknowledging her reply as she took the seat beside her. “Good reason.”

“You are dressed quite differently than usual,” voiced out Irene. Not like she was checking her out or something. It’s just that the difference it’s quite obvious even though this is the third time they met each other. The woman beside her usually wears something like a button up paired with a coat or a blazer, just a simple dressing. But now, a long sleeve t-shirt paired with black trousers is something that she didn’t expect for Wendy to wear.

“Oh, this?” asked Wendy, checking her attire for the day. “The office decided to hold some kind of a game day between the workers. That’s why I’m wearing this kind of clothing, so I could freely move without any restrictions.”

“A game day?”

“Mhm. It’s quite fun, if I need to state about my feelings of it being held,” chuckled Wendy lightly, focusing her gaze on the woman beside her who is looking at her with questions. “You know Harry Potter, don’t you?”

Irene frowned. She once heard it from a friend. “The magical world thingy?”

Wendy laughed softly. “Yeah, that one. So, we are kind of being divided into these four groups. And, if the group wins the game that they are playing to, they will get 5 points. And, in terms for us to actually win the game, the group needs to collect so many points so they could be the ultimate winner.”

“I think I understand so far,” nodded Irene. “Is your group the one who wins the game? The ultimate winner?”

She can hear a wince coming from her side. “Sadly, we are in second place. The gap between the winner and us is really close in terms of points. 10 points gaps.”

“That’s two games away.”

“I know,” sighed Wendy, leaning her back to the seat. “Quite sucks actually. But that group is playing fair, so just need to suck it up.”

Irene hummed as her mind worked hard, trying to make her do something. See, the problem with Irene is, she is not good with people. Or interacting as overall. She is never being the person who makes a small talk, especially not with a stranger. And now, her mind is roaring wildly, trying to make her show at least a small act of her sympathizing to Wendy. But she doesn’t know how or what she should do in this kind of situation.

“So, mind to tell me what have you been reading in the newspaper?”

Maybe Wendy is able to detect her agony, or if she just wants to change the topic. Nonetheless, Irene is grateful. “Just pure chaos. The world has turned themselves into madness, I think.”

“Well,” sighed the woman beside her, “that’s government for you. No matter what they do, sometimes there will always be a flaw that could cause a big effect on the people.”

She nodded in agreement. “Mind giving me your thoughts about the government?”

“This government? Or government as a whole?”

“Whatever fits your shoe,” shrugged Irene, folding aside her newspaper and tucking it right beside the now cold milk tea. She will continue to read it later, maybe inside the train. Since her journey from the station to her destination can be counted as quite far. But now, her attention is being piqued by Wendy.

“I don’t know. Government is a complex thing. They have so many kinds of forms, and we still don’t know which one is better than the other. Because, if we look at a much broader sight, they all have their advantages and disadvantages.”

“So, a perfect government is impossible for us to gain?”

Wendy sent her a small smirk. “There is nothing such as perfection in this world, Irene.”

Irene furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Humans have always tried to reach this so-called place named as perfection. An existence where things are just running the way they want, without having any flaw in our fault in the process,” explained Wendy. “Which is impossible for me. Because, no matter how you look at it, everything always has its own flaw.”

“Even the kindest people alive?”

“Even the kindest people alive.” Wendy changed her gaze from looking at the big clock hanging on the platform, to Irene’s face who was still sporting a puzzlement expression. “What do you think the flaw that the kindest people alive have, Irene?”

The woman hummed as her mind tried to come up with an answer. “The fact that they are kind?”

A soft chuckle slipped out from Wendy’s mouth with grace. “It’s quite close, but it’s not really the answer. You see, what do you usually associate the kindest person with? It can be a word.”

“I don’t know,” muttered Irene, furrowing her eyebrows once again like her mind is currently working hard to give her an immediate answer. “A perfect person?”

This time, Wendy responded with a smile. “And that’s their real flaw. Maybe you will think, why becoming a perfect person is their biggest flaw?”

Irene just looked at her, inwardly asking the same thing as she waited for her answer.

“Because that person is going to keep thinking about ‘How can I stay perfect for all my life?’. They will feel burdened with the needs of being this perfect person. Like they need to always show their kindness and positivity to someone else. It’s like a light who claims that they can light the whole room as long as they can, and people believe it. But when the light dies out, and is replaced by the eternal darkness, who will light it back?”

“No one,” muttered Irene in a disbelieving tone. “Because no one believes that the light can’t light the room anymore. And they didn’t believe that the darkness has replaced the light forever.”

“Bingo,” grinned Wendy, giving her a wide smile. “And that’s why, nothing is perfect in this world.”

She just blinked, still processing about the answer that she just got earlier. It’s not that hard for her to understand. It’s just hard for her to fathom that it is, indeed, that perfection is non-existent in this world. Even though people will always spend their whole lives thriving and catching it.

“And, it’s my time to go,” sighed Wendy as she stood up from her seat. “It’s a good talk tonight with you, Irene.”

“Glad that I can be a pretty good partner for you to talk to.”

Wendy chuckled from her answer as she shook her head softly. “Never sell yourself short, Irene. You are so much more than that.”

The woman immediately bids her goodbye to her, and Irene can only see her figure stepping inside the train without the need to bother to reply to her bid. Until the woman left the station.

She doesn’t know how, but the words that Wendy just said to her just strike to her core immediately. Immensely shaking her, making her numb and can do nothing beside just looking with her empty eyes.

Irene never rated herself as a good person. Overall, if she needs to point that out. It’s not like she also rates herself as a bad person. It’s just, she doesn’t see that there is something inside her that is quite worth it for her to keep and for her to find something new that she could make it as her own advantage.

So, she just got hit with shock as fast as the lightning struck down the earth when Wendy said that to her. Because that is the first time she ever receives that kind of words from someone. That she is so much more than what she thought she is. And she has something more for people to see her real worth in this cruel world.

That there is a light inside her, whom she thought just filled monotonously with grey and black. Slightly erasing it and filling it with colours, blue and pink.


End file.
